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Scenes from a LEAFFEST

LEAFFEST went very smoothly this year, maybe because we are getting really good at LEAFFEST. It was a smaller crowd than in the past few years, and that meant we could move nimbly between projects.

Above: Agenda for Saturday. The red checks indicate agenda items that were addressed. The photographic prints were taken with an actual Polaroid camera.

Will and Katie focused on using a Raspberry Pi Zero W to take microscopic photos of dust. I'll let them explain why they were doing that.

Above: Agenda for Sunday. Center diagram is a one-point perspective drawing of a Raspberry Pi microscope. Lower left diagram is a three-point perspective drawing of the same thing from the viewpoint of a piece of dust in the petri dish (where there is a man and dog). Both diagrams by J. Warren although one was retouched by an unpaid intern.

This was the first LEAFFEST to fall on the first of October when a repeat photo is taken from the backyard every year. The 11 years of photos in this series suggest that foliage color in Vermont is not something we should take for granted.

Above: One of these photos is not like the others. Also, the last three are more green than the others. This is either a trend or natural variability. Tune in next year for more.

Hi Zengirl. We missed you bigly. Turns out Katie's a rock hound. Who knew? (no, Public Lab, this is not a question). She went all in on the geology. Now every year we have to do a mushroom hunt AND a geology tour. Pretty soon there will be no time at all for kites.

There are garnets somewhere in these hills. Garnets are the Vermont state gemstone. The best ones come from Mount Belvidere where all the serpentine is. So maybe there are some at Vermont Verde Antique. We'll have to find out next year.